Mimicry
by Mrs.InsaneOne
Summary: Lies, conspiracies, and betrayals rocked Harry's world as he fought to destroy the darkest wizard to terrorize Great Britain in over two centuries. To make matters worse, Luck seems to have it out for our intrepid wizard as his life is turned upside down within seconds of defeating Voldemort. Pairings: HP/AH Now COMPLETE!
1. Parrot on the Pavement

**Summary:** _Lies, conspiracies, and betrayals rocked Harry's world as he fought to destroy the darkest wizard to terrorize Great Britain in over two centuries. To make matters worse, Luck seems to have it out for our intrepid wizard as his life is turned upside down within seconds of defeating Voldemort. Pairings: HP/AH_

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Animal Ark universe/worlds/characters are the property of Ben M. Baglio, associated authors, and respective publishing companies. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**Warnings:** _Mentions of character death, angst and drama, Animagus!Harry, Evil/Manipulative!Dumbledore, mild language, some mild crude humor, and suggestive themes, some hints of character bashing (mainly Molly, Ron, Ginny, and Hermione), and AU._

**AN:** _This story was written as a birthday gift to my youngest as she's always loved animal stories and Harry Potter; so I thought why not combine the two and this was the result. I hope you enjoy the story. ~ Jenn_

_Please note that this story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

**Parrot on the Pavement**

It had been three long hard years for Harry Potter; the young wizard risking life and limb to defeat one of the most powerful dark wizards in the last two centuries. He'd driven himself to exhaustion and beyond to find and destroy the horcruxes that Voldemort had created throughout his lifetime. When he first started out, he'd had his two best friends by his side and had thought they'd remain by his side until the bitter end. Well they were there until the bitter end alright; the bitter end of their friendship as they turned their backs on him yet again a bare four months into their desperate hunt. The saddest part was that their betrayal had not come as any real surprise to Harry.

After Hermione and Ron had left him, Harry returned to Grimmauld Place to discover that there had never been any reason for them to abandon the house because the Death Eater that had hitched a ride with them that day had been killed by the protective wards on the house. If they had not panicked that day, then they never would have been forced to go gallivanting all over Great Britain while being chased by more Death Eaters. Although, if they had not gone gallivanting about the country then Harry never would have known just how much his friendship had meant to his supposed best friends; or rather, how little.

Harry promptly made the house his base of operations once more. Now that he wasn't being bogged down by Hermione's domineering attitude or being held back by Ron's unwavering laziness, Harry sat down and put forth some real effort into figuring out what he was going to do. He started by securing Kreacher's help to steal the carcass of the basilisk from Hogwarts in order to extract the venom from the serpent's skull so he could use the potent venom to destroy Slytherin's Locket. Four months later, he'd procured Kreacher's help once more to steal Hufflepuff's Cup from Bellatrix Lestrange's Gringotts vault and destroyed it the same way after he learned the insane witch had been ordered to protect the horcrux by Voldemort through the link he shared with the Dark Lord.

A week after destroying the cup, Snape attempted to use Dobby to find Harry through the partial bond the elf had formed with Harry back in his second year. Harry ended up fully bonding with Dobby in order to prevent the little guy from being forced to act against him and promptly sent him back to Hogwarts to spy on the school. That led to Dobby finding another horcrux in the form Ravenclaw's Diadem inside of Hogwarts when Harry had talked the enthusiastic elf into stealing a bunch of useful things out of the Room of Requirement (such as the Half Blood Prince's potions book). The former Malfoy elf also snuck into Malfoy Manor and elf-napped Nagini with the help of Kreacher and the clever use of a Fainting Fancy from a Weasley's Skiving Snackbox tucked into the carcass of a dead rat that the two elves secretly fed the deadly snake. Both horcruxes were promptly destroyed leaving only one more horcrux to find.

Over the course of the next year and a half, Harry worked his way through the Black Library in order to prepare himself for the eventual confrontation with Voldemort while hunting for the final horcrux. The first thing he taught himself was how to cast the Fidelius Charm which he promptly used it to hide Grimmauld Place from everyone; setting himself as the Secret Keeper. He then taught himself several outdated but extremely useful defensive and offensive spells that didn't require ridiculous amounts of magic to power; allowing him to cast hundreds of spells back to back without exhausting himself. The last thing he taught himself was the animagus transformation after discovering Sirius's notes from when the Marauders had mastered the transformation. To protect himself and prevent anyone from discovering his animagus form, Harry once again used the Fidelius Charm to lock away the secret.

He also learned quite a bit about his family that people had been keeping from him; such as the Potters' status as part of the English and Scottish nobility and the fact that they were descended from royalty. That was actually one of the best kept secrets in the wizarding world; his family having spoken of their heritage with none but their sworn protectors. Harry's godfather had been his father's sworn protector (which is how the information on the Potter heritage had come to be sitting in the Black Library) right up until he'd been born and then Sirius had become Harry's sworn protector when he was named Harry's godfather. Half the reason Sirius had been half insane was due to being unable to fulfill his duties as Harry's protector due to the machinations of others; most notably Dumbledore and the Weasley Matron.

Towards the end of what would have been Harry's second year on the run, Harry ordered Dobby and Kreacher to kidnap Snape when no amount of research had turned up any clues as to what the final horcrux could be. He was less than pleased to find out that Dumbledore believed that his scar was a horcrux and fully expected him to freely sacrifice himself for a world that had ignored him for ten years, fawned over him like rabbits in heat the moment the dragged him into the spotlight, and then turned on him like rabid jackals any time he didn't behave as expected. He was even less pleased to learn just how much of his unpleasant childhood and his deadly and dangerous years at Hogwarts had been orchestrated by the bearded old buzzard.

The news that Dumbledore had found all three of the Deathly Hallows was slightly more welcome because they represented a potential advantage and Harry already had two of them; the cloak and the stone (having found it inside of the snitch Dumbledore left him after the snitch had been damaged by basilisk venom when he destroyed Nagini). He just had to claim the wand and defeat Draco to gain mastery of it (recalling quite clearly the moment blonde Slytherin had disarmed Dumbledore that night on the tower). Harry then spent an enjoyable day using Snape to teach himself how to perform all three types of memory charms (those that block memories, those that alter memories, and those that destroy memories) before he sent the man back to Hogwarts.

After that, Dobby was ordered to kidnap his former master and Kreacher was sent back to Hogwarts yet again to steal the Elder Wand out of Dumbledore's tomb. Defeating Draco proved to be a piece of cake as the blonde was still more apt to spout off insults and empty threats as opposed to actually fighting (unless one's back was turned). Harry disarmed him with a single spell and then modified his memory and sent him to the middle of Diagon Alley minus his wand and clothes; Draco's Dark Mark visible for all to see. Harry would then go on to spend another nine months researching the Hallows in order to better understand how to use them to defeat the Dark Lord. After all his research, he came to the conclusion that he needed to become the fabled Master of Death in order to properly and effectively wield the Hallows.

In the end, becoming the Master of all three Deathly Hallows wasn't that hard; all he had to do was use them all at the same time. So, he settled the cloak around his shoulders, used the wand to ward the room, and used the stone to call upon Death. That conversation with the Avatar of Death revealed that the concept of horcruxes was nothing more than a joke; one can not tear their soul into pieces and tuck them into objects to stop death. He also learned that the reason he'd survived the killing curse as a child was because his mother had tossed the invisibility cloak over him to hide him from Voldemort. Voldemort had found him through a fluke but hadn't bothered removing the cloak before firing his spell and because the cloak was designed to hide the wearer from death, Voldemort's spell had not killed Harry.

Dumbledore had been the one to give Harry the scar on his head when he forged a link between Voldemort and Harry through dark magic that bonded their souls together. The ancient wizard had used ancient blood magic to accomplish that feat and so long as the link remained than Voldemort would live because Harry was anchoring his soul on the mortal plane. That link was also the reason why Harry and Voldemort's wands never worked properly against each other; Voldemort didn't have any magic of his own, he was stealing half of Harry's through the link and Harry's magic refused to fight against itself. The horcruxes were actually soul portals that allowed a witch or wizard to take possession of another through an object when an individual came in contact with the device it had been placed upon. Harry was at least thankful that destroying the horcruxes hadn't been a complete waist of time.

Harry spent another hour asking a slew of questions regarding the Hallows and soul bonds (including whether or not Dumbledore had really been killed at the end of his sixth year). He then spent another hour trying to come up with a solution to getting rid of Voldemort (the man was currently out there killing innocents after all) that didn't involve him killing himself. In the end, all it took was a single order to Death. The dark avatar easily severed the link and Voldemort died instantly; taking a number of his marked Death Eaters with him due to the magical shockwave created by the severed link. That had also had the unfortunate side effect of unbinding the half of Harry's magical core that had been sustaining the link and the uncontrolled backlash from the sudden influx of magic swept out from him when he lost control and destroyed Grimmauld Place.

Battered by the uncontrolled shockwave of his magic and the house literally falling down around his ears, Harry barely held back his growing panic as he attempted to fight his way free of the house. The Elder wand flashed out time and time again as he shielded himself from the bits and pieces of the house that were raining down around his head. He had just about reached the front door when the front half of the house crashed down nearly on top of his head and Harry let out an involuntary yell as he jerked himself backwards just in time to avoid the worst of the debris.

His life flashed before his eyes as he was cut off from his only exit. Harry would have screamed in frustration at that point if he hadn't gotten a flash of clear sky through an opening in the falling debris. He stopped thinking in that instant and simply let his instincts take over as he transformed into his animagus form and flew up through the tiny opening he'd spotted.

Most people think that Life is a bitch and while Life can be difficult it isn't Life that is the real bitch. The truth is that Luck is the true bitch. She's a very fickle and cruel bitch too. She likes to dangle the prize right in front of your face before she yanks it away at the last second and shoves you face first in a pile of dog crap before laughing her ass off at your misfortune. Harry is very intimate with Luck's cruel teases. Oh there were times when it seemed like she was giving you what you need right when you needed it but appearances can be deceiving.

For example, take Harry's third year at Hogwarts. All year long he had been told that Sirius Black was looking to kill him when that couldn't have been further from the truth. It was actually the damn Ministry attempting to kill him as their stupid soul sucking guards constantly attacked him throughout the year. And he hadn't even done anything to draw their attention! At the end of the year, he learns that the man he'd been told was after his head on a platter was actually his godfather and his best friend's pet was a murderer in disguise.

Just when he thought he had a chance at a real family, Luck stepped in and stole it right out from under his nose with a stiff breeze that uncovered the moon and set Moony on the rampage. And to top it off, Snape was a petty little prick that wouldn't know the truth if it walked up and decked him in the face and proved himself to be an arrogant ass of epic proportions when he spouted off his nonsense about Sirius confounding Harry and his two former friends.

In the current predicament, Luck had given Harry a glimpse of a clean escape before she crushed it ruthlessly. He'd barely taken flight before the back of the house shifted forward and slammed into him as he was on his way up and out. If he had been an ordinary bird he would have been killed instantly but because he was a wizard in a bird's body his magic protected him just enough for him to survive the ordeal. Unfortunately, not even his magic could prevent the injuries inflicted upon his body, which included; a collapsed lung, crushed left rib cage, broken left leg, and multiple fractures in his left wing. It also didn't save his skin and feathers from being shredded by the jagged nails and busted boards that had raked him across the back.

He had just enough strength for one final act of desperation; gathering what little magic he had left, he blindly apparated himself free from the falling debris. A minute later, Harry hit the pavement hard and let out a screech of agony as he landed on his injured side; his vision going dark around the edges. He saw the briefest flash of black and yellow out of the corner of his eye before the darkness claimed him completely.

* * *

Amanda Hope, known as Mandy by her friends and family, stepped out of the taxi and gazed sadly up at the sign board proclaiming the building in front of her as the Animal Ark Veterinary Clinic. Pain bubbled up inside her as the reason she had been called back home slammed forcibly back into her mind and Mandy spun away from the clinic so she could pay the driver as he set her suitcase on the sidewalk at her feet. As much as she loved the idea of being home, after spending the past two years away at the university, she hated that she was coming home to bury her parents who had died just a week earlier in a gas explosion.

Discreetly wiping the tears from her face, Mandy grabbed the handle of her suitcase and robotically made her way to the door leading into cottage that had been her home growing up. The emptiness of the small home weighed heavily on Mandy as she set her suitcase down beside the door and wandered aimlessly through the house lost in the memories of her childhood. She slept that night on the couch; unable to bear sleeping in her old bed because it brought to mind happier times when her parents were still alive.

It would take Mandy two weeks to put her parent's affairs in order, make funeral arrangements for her parents, and pack up both the house and her parent's veterinary clinic. It broke her heart to shut the clinic down but there was no one to run it with her parents gone and while Mandy would have loved to run it herself, she still had a long ways to go before she earned her doctorate in veterinary medicine. Simon and Jean, the clinic's nurse and receptionist respectfully, had both been sympathetic and saddened when Mandy approached them about her decision to close the small family run clinic. Somehow, the fact that they understood her reasons and accepted the decision had hurt far more than the anger she had expected to face.

Wiping away her tears for the millionth time, Mandy locked the door to the clinic for the last time and pocketed the key as she spun away from the door and headed to the taxi that would be taking her back to the city. She'd barely taken two steps when an explosion of feathers appeared from out of no where and crashed to the ground at her feet with an agonized screech. Mandy gasped as she dropped down onto her knees beside the parrot on the pavement, her heart rising up in her throat as she took in the wretched state of the bird. She had a brief glimpse of a single bright green and gold eye before the bird passed out from the pain.

Pulling off her sweater, Mandy gently wrapped the bird up in the soft wool and spun around in order to rush the bird back into the clinic so that her mother could help the poor thing. Reality crashed down on Mandy a second later as she took in the boarded up windows of the clinic and she had to bite back the sob she felt rising up inside of her. Swallowing her grief, Mandy rushed to the taxi that was waiting for her and ordered the driver to take her to the veterinary clinic in Welton* (where Simon had transferred shortly after Mandy informed him she was closing the clinic) post haste. As the man pulled away from the curb, Mandy studied the injured bird cradled in her arms and couldn't help but wonder where the bird had come from and who it belonged to. She also wished she knew what had happened to the poor thing as it looked like it had been attacked by some kind of animal based upon the gouges that ran down its left side.

The most puzzling thing about the bird though was its unnatural coloring. It appeared, at first glance, to be an African gray but his coloring was nearly a solid black rather than gray; with only the tip of the feathers frosted with the normal blue-gray that most grays sported. The belly and leg feathers appeared slightly lighter than the rest of the bird if only because the gray frosting on the tips extended slightly further. His featherless feet were a dark gray that ended with wickedly sharp talons that were solid black. Even his red tail feathers were far darker than normal; appearing closer to the color of dried blood rather than bright scarlet. The patches of white feathers normally found around both eyes were a soft pigeon gray and sported a circle of solid black ringing both eyes so it looked as if the bird was wearing glasses. About the only thing that appeared normal about the bird was the fact that its beak was a near solid black (the very tip fading to a clear yellow-gray).

It was the memory of a single pain filled green and gold eye that she found the most puzzling though; his feather coloring most likely nothing more than a seldom seen variation. As far as she knew African gray parrots usually had eyes that were shades of gray and black with the occasional yellow or gold; but never green. She also couldn't think of any other type of parrot that had the same color or body type as the barely breathing bird she had on her lap (she ruled out the lesser vasa parrot, or the black parrot, due to the size and shape of the beak being all wrong as well as having the wrong body structure). By the time they pulled up outside of the clinic that her father had occasionally helped out when he was still alive, Mandy had convinced herself that she'd just imagined the flash deep emerald or that it had been a trick of the light.

All thoughts of mysteries fled Mandy's mind as she told the driver to wait for her as she darted out of the backseat of the cab and rushed into the clinic without waiting for a response; there was no time to spare because the poor bird was bleeding to death.

* * *

Harry faded in and out of consciousness for a long time; confusion and pain filling his entire world each time he managed to open his eyes for a split second. Unfamiliar voices surrounded him but he couldn't find the strength to reply to their questions and even if he had been able to speak, he lacked the ability to form a single coherent thought due to the constant pain. He much preferred the empty blackness where pain was nothing but a memory and thinking was an unnecessary luxury.

When true consciousness finally returned to the wizard, Harry felt absolutely terrible and he let out a groaning hiss as a particularly painful stab of pain lanced through his brain. Without opening his eyes, Harry took stock of his aching body. Aside from his pounding head, it hurt to breath; the entire left side of his chest burning with the familiar ache of broken and deeply bruised ribs. The bones in his left arm ached fiercely as did those in his left leg and both arm and leg felt trapped; as if they'd been tightly wrapped up. His entire left side and the left half of his back felt as if it was on fire and freezing at the same time. Lastly, he felt as if his magical core had been completely drained. All in all; Harry felt like complete crap.

"Did somebody at least get the name and number of the stupid sod that ran me over?" Harry demanded as he finally cracked an eye open now that he'd finished assessing his physical condition. The moment his eyes fell upon the steel bars of the cage he'd been placed inside he groaned again and muttered, "Oh bloody hell, just when I thought my day couldn't get any worse; I find myself behind bars. Just my sodding luck."

"My word, that's quite the vocabulary you have, Mr. Bird," a woman's voice declared unexpectedly; making Harry let out a loud squawk as he rolled himself over and scrambled up onto his feet; jarring his numerous injuries at the same time.

It was at that point that Harry finally realized he was in his animagus form as he stared up at the rather cute blonde that was peeking at him through the bars of the cage he was trapped inside. Harry shook his head to clear away the cobwebs and pain before he glanced down to take stock of his body; noting the splint secured to his left wing, the cast secured around his left leg, and the bandages his entire body was practically swaddled in. He clucked his tongue in dissatisfaction over what he found before he slowly hobbled closer to the front of the cage as he glanced about left and right to inspect his current prison. He then focused on the girl once more as he finally offered her a reply.

"What can I say, cutie pie; it's been one hell of a day. I have a killer headache, it hurts to breathe, my bones ache something fierce, and I have no memory of whatever crime it was I supposedly committed to find myself waiting on Her Majesty's pleasure. I don't suppose you'd be willing to ring up the warden so I could call my lawyer, would you, cutie pie?"

"Oh, Mr. Bird, you are such a comedian. You've not been arrested, silly bird; you're at the animal clinic because you nearly died."

"Oh damn, that's even worse than I feared! I'm doomed! Doomed I say! My life is over," Harry wailed dramatically as he tucked his head beneath his right wing and pretended to sob; he hated hospitals even more than he hated the idea of being in jail. Though, truth be told he pretty much thought hospitals were nothing more than fancy prisons anyway (Madam Pomfrey was ten times scarier than any warden).

"Ah… I never would have pegged you as a drama queen. Your former owner must have been a real card to train you to behave so outrageously. So, Mr. Bird, do you know your name or am I just going to have to keep calling you Mr. Bird?"

Harry lifted his head up and stared at the girl for a long moment, weighing his options carefully as he considered his current predicament and the chances of someone recognizing his name and realizing that he was an animagus. After a few minutes of intense scrutiny, Harry came to the conclusion that the girl in front of him seemed harmless enough and since he was stuck in his animagus form until he healed and his magic recovered he might as well make a friend or two least he find himself utterly bored on top of being trapped in a cage.

"Lord Harry James Potter of the Houses Potter and Black, wizard extraordinaire and frequent scapegoat, at your service, my fair lady," Harry finally stated as he gave a little head bob instead of bowing; his chest hurting too much at the moment (his magic, drained as it was, unknowingly compelling him to introduce himself properly instead of just giving her his first and last name).

"Well aren't you just a right gentleman, Mr. Potter? Or should I be calling you Lord Potter? Either way, I must say I am pleased to see that you are up and moving. I'd feared we'd lose you a time or two; you were a right mess when you fell out of the sky at my feet. Right lucky you were that I hadn't left yet or there might have been no one there to pick you up off the pavement."

"I'm certain it was Luck that got me into this stinking mess in the first place. Luck and a manipulative old codger looking for a sacrificial lamb," Harry countered sourly as he turned away from the woman and limped towards the water dish he could see clipped to the door of the cage.

He dipped his beak into the cool water and closed his eyes as he sipped at the cool liquid. He was startled a heartbeat later by the feeling of a finger running down the length of his right wing and he reacted quite violently; the twenty year old wizard never feeling at all comfortable with physical contact. Feathers went flying as he thrashed about in an effort to put plenty of distance between himself and the finger that had been petting him. He let out a warning hiss and eyed the offending digit with mistrust once he was clear; his heart beating wildly and his lungs burning with each breath he took.

"Easy there little fella; I didn't mean to startle you."

"Startle who, Mandy?" a thirty year old man with fair hair asked as he joined the young woman beside Harry's cage.

"Oh, hey there, Simon, I didn't hear you come in. I was just feeding the pups when our feathered friend here woke up and let me tell you whoever trained the bird saw to it he had a very extensive and creative list of vocabulary words. He freaked out a bit when I stuck my finger through the bars to pet him; I don't think he was expecting it."

"It's against the law to molest a body without so much as a by-your-leave," Harry groused as he ruffled his feathers and twitched his wings back into place. "Down right improper too. Kids these days have no manners, I swear."

"Oh wow… I see what you mean," the newly named Simon laughed as he leaned closer to get a good look at Harry while the girl, Mandy, blushed bright red over Harry's insinuation. "He's looking far better than I expected him to look given the state he'd been in when you brought him in. To tell you the truth, I'm surprised he survived. That he's up and moving about a bare week after his surgery, given how severe his injuries were, is nothing short of a miracle."

Harry let out a soft curse over the information that he'd been unconscious for a week and that he'd been operated on without his knowledge but he supposed he should be thankful they just didn't discount him as being beyond hope and simply put to sleep instead. He wondered if anyone was looking for him before he recalled that the only ones that would know he was even missing would be Dobby and Kreacher. Thinking of the two elves soon led to him thinking about how he'd ended up in his current predicament but trying to recall exactly what had happened made his head hurt.

"Why don't we bring you out so I can get a good look at your injuries, old man," Simon announced a minute later as he unlocked the cage and opened the door.

"Oy, watch who you're calling old buddy; or I'll bite your nose. And keep them hands where I can see them or you're going to find yourself a few fingers shy of a full set."

"Don't be difficult now, Mr. Potter," Mandy ordered as she frowned at him. "We're just trying to help you."

"Mr. Potter? You named him already?" Simon inquired as he cast a sideways glance at the girl.

"No, I was calling him Mr. Bird. He introduced himself as Harry Potter, or rather as Lord Harry James Potter of the House of Potter and Black, when I asked him his name; even went so far as to call himself a wizard and a scapegoat. I just can't bring myself to call him Lord Potter though; he's much too much of a comedian for me to think of him as a lord. Whether or not that is his name or just a name he knows very well is debatable though."

"What do you take me for? A feather brained pigeon? Of course, I know my own name," Harry spluttered indignantly as he crept closer to the open door debating on whether or not he stood a chance of making a clean getaway. A sharp glance down at his splinted left wing, cast encased left leg, and bandaged wrapped body had him sighing in defeat as he knew he'd not be able to get very far injured as he was; the fact that they'd clipped his wings while he was out would be an issue as well but he wouldn't discover that until later.

"If I was a superstitious person and believed it at all possible; I'd bet this bird was possessed," Simon grumbled as he stared at Harry. "He doesn't really behave anything like a bird."

"I'm sure he's just really well trained," Mandy assured the man as she opened the door wider and bravely stuck her hand in the cage. "Come on, Mr. Potter; let's bring you out so we can take a look at you. Don't be shy now; I promise I won't try and pet you again."

Harry tilted his head to the side and inspected the hand that was hovering just inches away from his feet. He then glanced up to stare her in the eye for a full minute before he sighed and reluctantly stepped up onto the offered hand. The feeling of being pulled out of the cage was unsettling and Harry spread his right wing wide and tightened his hold on the hand beneath his claws even as he turned his head this way and that to take in his surroundings now that his view was no longer limited to the inside of his cage. The girl set him down on an examination table a few minutes later and Harry hobbled to the edge to peer over the side before he turned back around to eye the two individuals that were looming over him.

The next hour an a half was a lesson in abject humiliation as the man named Simon invaded his personal space with single-minded determination and nothing Harry said or did deterred the man from his manhandling. The jerk even had the nerve to stick Harry with a needle and dope him up before taking a series of x-rays and drawing blood. By the time the ordeal was over, Harry was in a right foul mood and just barely resisting the urge to bite the man's fingers each time they drew near. The only thing saving the man's offending digits was the fact that Harry couldn't spare the energy as he still hadn't recovered from whatever it was the man had given him. The only redeeming factor throughout the entire ordeal was the fact that the stuff had taken the edge off his pain.

The full list of his injuries had been rather sobering too; as he hadn't thought he'd done quite that much damage to himself. He still wished he knew what the hell had happened to him. The last thing he clearly remembered was facing Draco Malfoy in a duel but he was quite certain that Malfoy couldn't have messed him up this bad because the blonde Death Eater would have sooner killed him or delivered him to the Dark Lord than leave him somewhere someone could find him. When he was finally returned to his cage, Harry was half asleep and the last thing he heard before Morpheus pulled him under was the girl, Mandy, wishing him pleasant dreams.

* * *

**Notes:**

*Welton – in the Animal Ark books, the nearby village where Mandy and James often visited was actually Walton but in actuality Walton is in Somerset while Welford (the town Animal Ark is situated in) is in Northamptonshire and I can't see the children's parents allow them to travel that far by themselves. So I changed Walton to Welton since there is a Welton that is fairly close to Welford enough for the children to have realistically been allowed to go there alone.


	2. Bird on the Bed

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Animal Ark universe/worlds/characters are the property of Ben M. Baglio, associated authors, and respective publishing companies. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**AN:** _Please note that this story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

**Bird on the Bed**

It was the sound of crying that woke him several hours later. There was a moment's disorientation as he opened his eyes to a dark room but his memories of everything that had happened when he woke up the first time soon came back the moment his eyes could make out the bars of his cage. Shuffling towards the front of his cage, Harry canted his head in an effort to pinpoint where the crying was coming from and possibly figure out who it was that was crying. The soul wrenching sobs struck a cord in his heart the longer he listened as they reminded Harry of the end of his fifth year when he'd spent the last two weeks of school grieving for Sirius. Oh, he'd never bawled his eyes out because there'd been far too many people watching him but that hadn't stopped the burning ache that had ripped at his heart day in and day out.

A door opened somewhere and a shard of light brightened the room just enough to make it easier to see the other cages beyond the bars of his door. The crying abruptly broke off but not before whomever it was that opened the door had heard it. Hesitant footsteps entered the room and Harry easily recognized the familiar features of Simon as the man passed in front of his cage a minute later. The man never even looked his way though as he moved further into the room in the direction the crying had been coming from.

His voice rose above the soft background noises of other animals moving in their cages, "Mandy? Is that you? What are you still doing here? Are you alright?"

"I don't know what I'm doing anymore, Simon," Mandy choked out a moment later and the pain Harry could hear in her voice tugged at his heart. "I thought they'd always be here. It's not fair; why did they have to die? What am I supposed to do without them? This past week, helping you care for the poor parrot; it was easy to pretend that I was back at Animal Ark and mum and dad were once again trusting me to help them nurse their patients back to health. The first thing I did after I left this morning was head for the nearest phone so I could call dad to tell him that the bird had woken up. I couldn't wait to tell him what a wise cracker the bird turned out to be and it wasn't until I got the recording stating that our number had been disconnected that I remembered that they were both dead and that I will never again be able to share my funny little stories about the animals I meet because they're gone."

"I know it hurts right now, sweetheart, but there will come a day when the pain isn't quite as overwhelming as it is right now and you can fondly think back to all of the good times you and your parents shared," Simon soothed and Harry imagined that he'd taken Mandy into his arms as the girl's sobs had grown muffled. "They'll always be watching over you and I bet you anything they saw what happened with the parrot earlier and laughed with you over the bird's outrageous comments."

The girl gave out a wet laugh that was so full of pain and longing that Harry found himself blinking back tears of his own as he thought back to his own long absent parents and the godfather he'd barely gotten the chance to know. For some reason the mere idea that the cute little blonde that had apparently saved his life was wracked with such soul wrenching grief struck a sour chord in Harry and he wished there was something he could do for her to ease her pain.

As he sat there listening to her cry her heart out, old memories of when he used to sit outside of the old church in Little Whinging on Sunday mornings and listen to the congregation singing hymns floated up out of the depths of his subconscious. He'd never dared step inside of the church, his hand-me-down clothes far too ragged and embarrassing when compared to the fancy suits and dresses everyone else always wore on Sundays. He used to love listening to the choir sing though and after getting caught hanging around the back of the church several times by the vicar, the man had given Harry one of the older hymnals so he could sing along if he wished. There was always one song that Harry had liked above all others; a song that had given him hope during the times when he'd been locked in his cupboard for days on end or whenever he was on the verge of giving up.

Harry sang that song now, his parrot voice soft and low as it cut unexpectedly through the room, "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me…"

When he finished singing the last verse, Harry let his voice trail off as he leaned against the wire door of his cage and closed his eyes; his thoughts and memories on his godfather once more. The sound of soft footfalls approaching his cage had Harry opening his eyes and he shifted away from the door in an unconscious desire to avoid any attempts by either human to pet him. A minute later, Mandy's tear streaked face stopped right in front of his cage and Harry felt his heart ache for her once more.

"Hey cutie pie, don't cry," Harry blurted out in an effort to cheer her up. "Let me kiss your tears away."

"You are an incorrigible flirt, Mr. Potter," Mandy declared with a small smile as she let out a soft chuckle. "I bet your owner is missing you something terrible. Do you think he might have belonged to a movie studio or maybe the circus, Simon? Someone put a lot of effort into training him and it would make sense if he was trained to perform for a crowd."

"May the old codger choke to death on his lemon drops for eternity in hell," Harry rasped irritably as the girl's mention of training reminded him all that he'd learned about Dumbledore manipulations from Snape and… and… a dark someone wearing a hood.

Keeping one eye on Mandy as she leaned against the outside of his cage, Harry sipped at his water before he hobbled to the other side of the cage to inspect the food dish as his stomach made itself known for he first time all day with a soft growl. The birdseed looked unappetizing and he would have turned his beak up at it if he hadn't been starving; not really surprising considering he'd been unconscious for a week. Sighing in resignation, Harry dug through the dish for a peanut and immediately ran into a slight snag; he had no idea how to crack it open without his hands. He'd never really spent any time getting used to his animagus form nor had he ever really studied any birds outside of Hedwig but even he knew that parrots behaved nothing like owls.

He spent a good five minutes trying to crack the shell of the peanut open before he gave up and dug back into the food dish for a sunflower seed thinking it would be easier. It wasn't. In fact, the smaller seed was even harder for him to hold onto and he kept dropping it. He dug back into the food dish in desperation to find something that was not a seed, shelled nut, or processed pet food and lucked out when he found bits of freeze dried fruit. He carefully dug out each piece of fruit before he spent several minutes figuring out how to crush them with his beak before swallowing them.

"You're such a silly bird, Mr. Potter," Mandy declared, making Harry jump a bit as he'd forgotten that he was no longer alone in his single minded quest for food. "I've never seen such a picky eater before nor have I ever seen a parrot that doesn't know how to crack open a peanut or sunflower seed."

"Bird seed is for bird brains," Harry snootily declared as he turned his beak up at the food dish; his attitude making Mandy laugh.

"Come on, Mandy, I'll drive you back to your hotel so you can get some rest," Simon announced after Mandy's laughter died down a few minutes later.

"No. I already checked out of the hotel, Simon. I can't stay here any longer. I should have left days ago but I wanted to make certain our clever little friend here pulled through. I'll help you lock up and then call a cab to take me back to Cambridge."

Panic seized Harry at the mere thought of never seeing the cute little blonde again; something inside of him telling him that he couldn't let her out of his sight. If Harry's core hadn't been completely depleted and if his most recent memories weren't so fuzzy he would have known that it was the life debt he owed the young woman for saving his life that was drawing him to her.

"Please take me with you, cutie pie," Harry begged as he pressed right up against the door of his cage.

"Oh you silly bird, I can't take you with me; what would I do with you while I was in class?"

"I'm housebroken, I can cook and clean, and while I might talk in my sleep I swear I don't snore. I'll even be your watch dog and guard your house," Harry promised before he let out a string of realistic sounding barks and growls. "Just, please don't leave me."

"Oh, he's good," Simon drawled with a short laugh as Mandy stared at Harry with a deer-in-the-headlights look.

"I can't…"

"Oh my wounded heart!" Harry dramatically cried as he staggered backwards and swayed from side to side. "I have been forsaken by the light of my life and it cuts like a knife." He slumped backwards onto his back and stiffly stuck his feet up and played dead as he stage whispered, "My life is over before I'd even begun to live."

"You know he'd just end up in the animal shelter once he'd finished healing," Simon gently pointed out as he smothered the chuckle that Harry's antics had elicited. "If you take him with you, you'd have a better chance of tracking down his former owner and he'd have a good foster home in the mean time."

"Simon…"

"Today was the first time I'd heard you laugh since you arrived three weeks ago, Amanda," Simon cut in seriously as he took her hand in his. "I know you miss your parents; I miss your parents. They were my best friends and my bosses for over nine years. I worry about you going back to Cambridge all alone with no one to watch out for you. I also know that James headed back to Scotland with his parents and you and I both know you haven't really made any friends at Uni; you'd always been far fonder of animals than people anyway. Take the cheeky parrot with you; he'll at least keep you company and give you someone to pour your heart out to when you're missing your parents. We both know you'd love to keep the little blighter with you anyway."

"I… fine. When should I come back for him?"

"You can take him now. You've already paid for his surgery and all he really needs is time for his bones to mend and his feathers to grow back. He can do that as easily at your place as he could here and I know you know how to care for him. It's also obvious that he likes and trusts you; just like the rest of the animals do. Go ahead and pull him out of his cage and bring him up front and I'll set you up with his prescriptions and a carrier for the ride home."

Harry scrambled up onto his feet as he heard the door to his cage open and this time when Mandy held her hand out in front of him he wasted no time in stepping up onto her fingers. He preened his chest smugly as she lifted him out of the cage and if he'd been human he'd have had a smirk plastered across his face. When she shifted him up onto her shoulder, he couldn't resist warbling out a couple of sea shanties and pirate songs as she carried him through the darkened clinic. Her soft laughs and giggles encouraged him to let loose and be himself in a way he hadn't been able to do in years. It was liberating and Harry found himself not minding the fact that he was currently stuck in his animagus form for an indefinite period of time.

He offered no resistance when he was transferred into the cardboard carrier that Simon provided; not wishing for the girl to change her mind. He peered through the holes in the side of the box and watched the man ring up a couple of bags of bird seed, a tall cast iron and oak perch, and a couple of prescriptions while the girl signed the release forms that would allow her to take him with her. He found it curious that no cash actually exchanged hands as the man had used existing credit to cover the cost of everything (indicating that the girl had prepaid for him to spend an extended period of time at the clinic while he healed). Harry was then left on the counter while the two of them closed up the clinic and waited for the cab to arrive.

Harry ended up sleeping through most of the drive from Welton to Cambridge; his body still weak from his recent injuries. He didn't wake up until he felt his box being lifted up off of the floor of the backseat of the cab and he splayed his claws to prevent himself from being tossed about the box as he was carried a short distance before being set down. He knew, from having overheard Mandy giving direction to the cabby, that they were now in Cambridge and that she lived at Number Sixteen Auckland Road. Beyond that, Harry knew nothing about the young lady who was now his temporary guardian aside from the fact that she'd just lost both of her parents and she was attending the University of Cambridge.

Twenty minutes later, Harry got his first view of his temporary home. The front door opened onto a cozy sitting room furnished with a tasteful if inexpensive couch, several bookshelves stuffed full of books and old VHS movies, a low coffee table, a pair of end tables set on either end of the couches, a pair of standing lamps, and a rather outdated entertainment center with an old television, an older VHS player, and a low end stereo player. A small fireplace sat centered on the left hand wall. The floors were done in oak flooring and covered with what appeared to be handmade throw rugs while the walls were hung over with hundreds of framed photos of animals of all shapes and sizes.

Connected to the sitting room was the dining room. There was a small oak table with room enough to seat four comfortably, an antique oaken hutch filled with two distinct sets of dishes (one of which was obviously made of china while the other appeared to be made of heavy earthenware), and a tasteful handing lamp and ceiling fan combination. On the walls were several lifelike oil paintings of rabbits, foxes, dogs, and horses. Like the sitting room, the floor was done in oak and this time there was a mock Persian rug spread beneath the table and a thinner runner that stretched from the archway leading to the sitting room all the way to the door that led into the kitchen.

The kitchen itself was rather small and boxy with a counter running the length of the room to the right as you entered the room and a shorter counter on the left just beyond the backdoor that led to the small porch and garden that was Mandy's backyard. The stove and oven were set in the middle of the longer counter and the refrigerator fit into a niche right at the very end of the counter closest to the dining room. The sink sat right below the kitchen window that over looked the small yard beside which sat a small microwave and coffee pot. Beyond the kitchen was the downstairs bathroom.

The stairs leading up to the first floor were found in the dining room and led up to a small hallway, two bedrooms, and the second bathroom. The smaller of the two bedrooms had been converted over to a study slash office with a small desk, several more bookshelves, and a well worn armchair. On the desk sat an old desktop computer, a printer, and a large stack of heavy textbooks. There were no rugs on the wooden floor but the walls were once more covered with photographs of a large assortment of animals.

The second bedroom was slightly larger than the first and furnished with a queen sized sleigh bed, a pair of nightstands, a stand alone wardrobe, and a small vanity. There was another comfortable looking armchair that was situated in front of a second fireplace that sat directly above the fireplace in the sitting room. There were several handmade rugs depicting cats and dogs spread out over the floor and taped to the walls were dozens of animal posters; some of them obviously quite old given their frayed edges. The upstairs bathroom was tucked between the two bedrooms. Overall, it was a boxy little apartment well suited for a college student.

After Mandy gave him a tour of the house, which seemed kind of odd because as far as she knew he was just a bird, she set up his perch in her bedroom. She then transferred him from her shoulder onto the perch before disappearing back downstairs to grab her suitcase and the rest of his supplies. Harry watched her unpack his things and fill up both his water dish and his food dish before she unpacked her suitcase. Then to Harry's mortification she began stripping right in front of him.

"Ah my virgin eyes!" Harry cried out as he immediately shoved his head beneath his right wing in order to resist the temptation to stare. "Have you no shame woman!?"

"Methinks your previous owner was a pervert if he taught you to say things like that, Mr. Potter," Mandy countered with a laugh as she dug through her wardrobe for a change of underwear and her pajamas. "It is safe to uncover your eyes now, Mr. Potter, I'm decent. Do behave yourself, young man; I need to get some sleep because I have to be up early tomorrow so I can get in touch with my professors to make arrangements to get a list of what assignments I missed and track down a classmate or two to borrow their notes or get a copy of the lectures transcripts while I was out. So, goodnight, Mr. Potter."

"Sweet dreams, cutie pie," Harry automatically offered as he glanced up in time to see Mandy slipping beneath the sheets of her bed.

Harry spent an hour trying to get comfortable on his perch but he kept feeling like he was going to fall off since he wasn't used to balancing on a bar for so long. It didn't help that his left leg was starting to ache from all the weight he was putting on it (slight though it was in his bird form). At that point, Harry jumped down off his perch and expected to glide down to the floor so he could find a more comfortable place to curl up for the night only to end up in a pile of feathers when his wings refused to work for him (his left greatly restricted by the splint he wore).

The discovery that someone had clipped the ends off his flight feathers had Harry cursing up a storm as did the renewed pain that shot through his entire left side and back from his graceless crash landing. Grumpy, in more than a little pain, and feeling out of his depths because of everything that had happened since he first woke up, Harry decided that he deserved to sleep in a nice comfortable bed.

It took him close to thirty minutes to climb up the side of Mandy's bed using the comforter. He began having second thoughts about sleeping in the same bed as his rescuer when he came face to face with the sleeping blonde. He couldn't help but feel like a pervert as he stood there on the edge of her bed watching her sleep; especially when his mind kept supplying him with tantalizing images of her clad in nothing but her bra and panties. In the end, he gave in to his desire to sleep in a bed and made his way over to the unoccupied pillow. He then burrowed down beneath the covers, curled up against the pillow, and promptly fell asleep.

* * *

Mandy reached out and shut off her alarm clock as she stifled a yawn, stretched out her back and shoulders, and sat up. As she pushed the covers down off her legs she heard a sleepy complaint coming from beside her and she turned to find the parrot that had weaseled his way into her home curled up on the pillow next to her. As she watched, the bird seemed to grope for the covers with his wing before he sat up and took hold of the blankets with his beak and pulled them back up over his body. Mandy couldn't hold back a laugh over how silly the bird looked curled up in her bed as if he thought he was human.

"Oh you silly, silly bird; what are you doing in my bed?"

"Sleeping, now shush!"

Mandy laughed again as she slipped out of the bed and picked out something to wear for the day. As she headed to the bathroom to take a shower, she couldn't help but work on the puzzle that was one Lord Harry James Potter. Over the years she'd met quite a few animals that were right characters but she'd never before met a creature quite like Mr. Potter. There were times when his outrageous verbal responses and behavior seemed distinctly unbirdlike; like the way he'd begged and pleaded for her to take him with her. She also recalled the way his piercing green and gold eyes had seemed to stare right through her as he weighed her soul when she'd asked him his name and she shivered in remembrance.

She returned to the bedroom fifteen minutes later to find the parrot still sleeping on her pillow and she grinned to herself as she dug out her camera and snapped a couple of pictures. Oddness aside, the bird was absolutely adorable and his antics were amusing. Putting the camera away, she changed his water and made certain there was plenty of food in his dish before she turned to wake him up. Mandy hesitated a moment with her hand outstretched towards the bird; recalling his rather extreme reaction to being petted the day before. Pulling her hand back she decided she'd try verbally waking him before she just picked him up so as not to startle him.

"Rise and shine, boy; it's time for breakfast," Mandy sang out crisply. She was completely unprepared for the response she got to that simple statement.

"Coming, Aunt Petunia!" Harry called back as he literally jumped out from under the covers and promptly stepped off the side of the bed where he ended up in a pile of feathers; as if he'd not expected to walk off the bed.

Mandy shook off her confusion as she rushed to the bird's side and quickly gathered him up off the floor to make certain he hadn't injured himself further, "Are you all right, Mr. Potter? You didn't hurt yourself did you?"

"Cutie pie?"

"Yes. Let's get a look at you and make certain you didn't hurt yourself when you took a tumble off the bed just now when I tried to wake you up."

Harry sighed but tolerated the manhandling as Mandy inspected both of his wings and his legs before she attempted to help him to his perch. He refused to go; he needed to use the bathroom and he was not bird enough to just let loose wherever or whenever he felt the need to go. Once he got the girl to understand what he needed he was more than a little mortified that she stayed to watch him use the toilet. He tried making a joke out of it by shouting bombs away as he went to the bathroom but even though she smothered a laugh he felt the joke fell kind of flat. He wasn't certain if her soft praise when he flushed the toilet afterwards made it worse or not.

Once that minor ordeal was over, Harry found himself being fed two pills (one a painkiller and the other an antibiotic) stuffed inside of a slice of banana and he was almost offended that Mandy thought she was fooling him. He purposefully picked the pills out and ate the fruit as he watched her purse her lips in mild frustration mixed with disappointment. He then haughtily told her that he was a big boy and that he didn't appreciate tricks that questioned his intelligence before he promptly ate the discarded pills. The gob smacked look on her face was totally worth the foul taste the pills had left on his tongue (muted though it was since parrots didn't have anywhere near as many taste buds as humans did).

He was given another two slices of the banana as a treat before he was carried back upstairs and placed upon his perch facing his food dish. He took one look at the birdseed inside of the tin cup and sighed before he diligently fished out the bits of dried fruit. Mandy scolded him for being picky but Harry just couldn't bring himself to eat bird food because even if he looked like a parrot he wasn't really a parrot and bird seed sounded unappetizing no matter which way you looked at it.

The girl locked him in her room on his perch not long after that; telling him to behave while she was gone. Harry listened to her footsteps moving off down the stairs and heard the distant sound of a door opening and closing. He waited another half hour to make certain that she had left before he called for Kreacher and Dobby. Unfortunately, neither elf responded to the call because Harry didn't have enough magic available to properly call for them. Growling in frustration, Harry resigned himself to healing the muggle way as he stared around the room that had in essence become his new prison. He'd spend the rest of the morning napping on the tray below his perch (not wishing to end up crashing to the floor for a third time) as the pain meds kicked in.

When he woke up around lunchtime, Harry attempted to call the two house elves a second time with the same lack of results. Sighing, he eyed his food dish full of unappetizing bird seed with disdain as he felt the first stirrings of hunger clawing at his belly. Eventually, he gave into the hunger and spent two hours teaching himself how to crack open peanuts, sunflower seeds, and pumpkin seeds; he still refused to touch the rest of the bird seed though and the processed biscuit like bits were thrown onto the tray of his perch with much prejudice.

Once he'd taken the edge off of his hunger, he spent the afternoon hanging around bored out of his mind. He couldn't really explore the house, even if he could safely get down off his perch, because he'd been locked inside of the room. He couldn't return to his human form because of the cast on his left leg and the splint on his left wing; not to mention his current lack of magic. He couldn't even peer out the window to get an idea of what the neighborhood looked like because his perch wasn't close enough to the window. So he occupied himself by singing an assortment of silly songs, practicing using his beak as a nutcracker, and putting forth the effort to get better acquainted with his current form so he wasn't so clumsy.

When Mandy returned around supper time, she would find Harry hanging upside down by one foot from his perch singing bawdy drinking songs at the top of his lungs.


	3. Wizard on the Warpath

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Animal Ark universe/worlds/characters are the property of Ben M. Baglio, associated authors, and respective publishing companies. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**AN:** _Please note that this story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

**Wizard on the Warpath**

Harry ruffled his wings and shifted from foot to foot before he used his beak to reorder his feathers. When he finished grooming himself, he cast a sideways glance out the window and noted that the sun was just touching the horizon; lighting up the sky in shades of red and orange. Anticipation filled him as he shifted around on his perch so that he was facing the front door of the little apartment as the knowledge that Mandy would be home any minute filled him.

It had been five years since Harry had been saved by the vivacious muggle. Five long years in which Harry had been trapped in his animagus form first due to his injuries and then later due to the fact that his core was very slowly regenerating his magical reserves. The fact that he'd been in contact with all three Hallows at the time had complicated matters as well but he hadn't yet discovered that little nugget of information. There had been times when he'd been greatly frustrated by his situation but he'd eventually grown to accept that even magic had limits. For the most part though, Harry hadn't minded in the least.

The biggest reason for his acceptance was the constant companionship of one Amanda Hope.

After the first six months he'd spent as Mandy's housemate (_not_ pet) when it became apparent that his magic was not recovering as quickly as it should have, Harry had slowly begun sounding the young woman out to see how receptive she was to the idea of magic and wizards. Surprisingly, she'd been far more willing to accept that magic existed than he'd originally hoped she would be; which he learned was because of numerous experiences she'd had as a child growing up with ghosts and specters. Getting her to believe that he wasn't a real bird was a bit harder because he couldn't prove it because he didn't have enough magic to change back.

It had taken close to two years to prove that he wasn't just yanking her chain. Even then, that was only because that was how long it had taken for him to build up enough magic to call Dobby and Kreacher to his side. Both elves had been emotional at finally finding their lord and master; his current form and lack of magic having prevented them from finding him on their own. They'd known he was alive, because they were still bonded to him, but they'd been completely cut off from him and the failure had been very hard on the two magical beings. It had been the presence of the elves that helped him to regain his memory of what had happened to him all those years ago; how he'd been injured and ended up in his animagus form hundreds of miles away from his house. The news that Grimmauld Place had been beyond repair wasn't surprising nor did it bother Harry all that much since he hadn't really considered it home.

His fear that she'd be angry and hate him after she finally accepted that he was a wizard had been baseless; though she had been upset that he'd been a bit of a pervert through the years. In his defense, he'd at least tried to be a gentleman in the beginning and he claimed that she was the bigger pervert since she'd often enjoyed teasing him. Not long after mostly accepting Harry's status as a wizard trapped in the body of a bird, Mandy asked him why he'd begged her to take him with him instead of just staying in the animal hospital or the shelter where he'd have a better chance of escaping. Harry had spent a good hour explaining the concept of life debts to the blonde and the compulsion and fear he'd felt the moment he'd learned she was leaving that night. He also told her he was a sucker for a pretty face and that he'd been captivated by the sound of her laughter from the moment he first heard her laugh.

During the two and a half years after that, Harry had only grown closer to Mandy as they shared their life's stories, spoke of their dreams for the future, and hung out together during the evenings and on weekends. With the elves eagerly taking over cleaning the small condo-like apartment and feeding the pair (Harry reveling in a diet that did not consist of bird food), Mandy was able to focus entirely on her studies while Harry kept himself entertained by reading his way through her library and obtaining an informal muggle education. The wizard turned parrot also made it a point to be certain that Mandy took time out to rest and relax so she didn't get burnt out and helped her study for the various tests.

The only two people that Harry allowed Mandy to bring in on his secret were Simon (the nurse that had helped save his life) and James Hunter (Mandy's best friend). Both men were very close to Mandy, James especially, and Harry had gotten to know them through the years he'd been living with Mandy. Simon had been skeptical at first but James had accepted the possibility right from the beginning because he'd shared most of Mandy's childhood adventures. The undeniable presence of the elves made it even easier to believe.

No one on the wizarding side was aware of Harry's current predicament outside of his two elves; there was no one he trusted enough to divulge his vulnerability to at the moment. The day his two former friends turned their backs on him during the horcrux hunt had killed any faith he'd had in the magical world. Learning that his former best friends and ex-girlfriend had claimed full responsibility for Voldemort's defeat once news of the Dark Lord's death had been released to the public hadn't exactly helped matters. His disappearance had not been discovered until about a year after Voldemort's death and a nationwide search had been conducted and after two years without any leads, the Ministry had attempted to have him declared dead.

By that time, Harry had already reconnected with his bonded elves and through them he'd been in contact with Gringotts bank. The goblins had immediately revealed that Harry was alive and living in seclusion due to the lies that had been told by his former friends the day the Ministry announced their belief that Harry had died during the course of the war. Harry, with the help of his elves, had given a highly detailed written accounting of what had happened after Bill and Fleur Weasley's wedding had been crashed by Death Eaters (only omitting any and all reference to horcruxes, the link Dumbledore had forged between him and Voldemort, and the Hallows). Once completed, he'd sent the finished document to Gringotts along with copies of pivotal memories. Those memories included; his breaking up Ginny at the end of his sixth year, the attack at the wedding, the day Ron and Hermione ditched him, and portions of his interrogation of Snape.

In that written report, Harry claimed that he'd killed the Dark Lord from a distance using an obscure love based ritual that he'd been researching since his friends abandoned him. He didn't hesitate to admit that the reason he'd not spoken up sooner was because of how close to death he'd come in carrying out the ritual (not exactly a lie since breaking the link had nearly killed him in the end). The backlash of that mini-autobiography shook the wizarding public and angered quite a few people (namely the Weasley family and Hermione) since it stripped them of any honor they had falsely claimed for themselves. It also saw Snape striped of his Order of Merlin (First Class) that he'd been given for 'protecting' the students of Hogwarts along with his position as Headmaster of Hogwarts and executed via the veil. Many others had been thrown from their pedestals and crushed beneath the truth as well though only those carrying the Dark Mark were thrown through the veil.

Caught up in his memories of the past, Harry let out an evil laugh as he once more reveled in the knowledge that he'd utterly destroyed the lives of those who'd turned their back on him and spit upon his sacrifices. He was so wrapped up in those memories that he didn't hear the front door being unlocked.

"Knock it off, Harry; you know I don't like it when you make that creepy laugh," Mandy ordered as she kicked the door shut.

"Sorry, cutie pie, I couldn't help myself."

"Dwelling on the lives you ruined again, hmm? You do know basking in the torment of others isn't healthy, right?"

"I wasn't enjoying the suffering of others; I was appreciating the administration of justice," Harry corrected with one last laugh as he launched himself across the room to land on Mandy's shoulder. "So, cutie pie; what's the verdict? Did you pass?"

"Yes," Mandy replied with a grin as Harry let out a whistle before he playfully leaned forward to kiss her on the cheek and received a kiss on the beak in return.

"I told you there would be nothing to it."

"So you did."

The rest of the night was spent celebrating Mandy's successful completion of her doctorate in veterinary medicine. It was a bittersweet moment for the twenty-five, almost twenty-six year old, as she desperately wished she could have shared the moment with her absent parents. Harry, tuned as he was to Mandy's many moods, simply cuddled up next to her and allowed her to draw comfort from his presence as she stroked the feathers of his wings and back (his aversion to being touched long since banished by Mandy's stubborn persistence and a mutual need for physical contact).

Over the course of the next two months, Mandy slowly packed up the apartment with the help of the two house elves while the day of her graduation ceremony drew near. When the young woman wasn't sorting through those things she wished to keep and those she no longer needed, she was busy filling out the endless river of paperwork that would allow her to reopen her parent's clinic in Welford. Harry helped as best he could but mostly just made certain that Mandy took the time to eat and kept track of her many appointments so that she never missed out on any important meetings.

Exactly five years (to the day) since the day that Harry fell out of the sky to land at Mandy's feet; Mandy stepped out of the cab with Harry perched on her shoulder in front the Animal Ark Veterinary Clinic. Harry rubbed his cheek against Mandy's in an offer of comfort as tears filled her eyes. It was an emotional moment for Mandy as her life had come full circle; Animal Ark representing both her beginning and ending point. Her entire life had been dedicated to the clinic from the moment she'd been old enough to be allowed to help care for the animals that spent the night in the clinic.

The clinic was the beginning and ending of Harry's life as well; as he'd left behind his old life the moment he'd apparated blindly out of Grimmauld Place and his new life had started the moment he'd appeared in front of Mandy. The wizard turned bird had no regrets; he'd much rather live out his entire life as the feathered companion of one Amanda Hope than spend the rest of his life bitter and alone as a human. He'd even revised his opinion of Luck, Fate, and Life; the three mystical beings had conspired together to deliver him to Mandy, after all.

The two of them quickly settled into their new lives; Mandy easily sliding into the role of pet doctor and Harry portraying the friendly and outrageous clinic mascot with the two elves in the background continuing to take care of both wizard and woman. Simon would join the staff a month and a half after Mandy reopened the clinic; the older man once again taking on the role of nurse for Animal Ark. James turned up two weeks after Simon to take over the role of receptionist, lab technician, and personal assistant for Mandy when she began making house calls as her parents had before her. Things were pretty much perfect in Harry's mind and he was content with his life. James had also moved into the cottage attached to the clinic as Mandy's roommate in order to keep her company and save several hundred pounds a month in rent.

The peace lasted exactly six months when three irate witches finally managed to track Harry through his muted magical signature (which was currently being amplified due to the magical residue left by his desperate apparation five and a half years earlier). On the day in question, Harry was goofing around in the lobby of the clinic around closing time as he waited for Mandy and James to finish locking up for the day.

The first indication that his night was going to be shot to hell was the feeling of containment wards being thrown up around the clinic. The wards would prevent all forms of magical travel into and out of the building; including elf travel. Harry froze and whipped his head back and forth in an effort to scan the lobby before he launched himself into the air and glided across the room so that he landed in front of the window and spent several long minutes searching the sidewalk and street out in front of the clinic. When he didn't see anyone standing out front and he felt a knot of fear settle in his stomach at the thought that escaped Death Eaters might have found him.

A loud crash, the sound of glass breaking, and a scream turned Harry's fear into rage as he realized that their attackers had entered the clinic through the backdoor or through the cottage. Throwing himself back into the air, Harry flew through the lobby towards the back of the clinic as fast as his wings could carry him. A second, louder scream turned Harry's rage into white hot fury as he heard the pain in the sound and recognized Mandy's voice; someone was hurting his cutie pie. Unknown to Harry, his burning anger had begun pulling on his magic and the magic of the Hallows; drawing the shadows around his animagus form and making it look like his feathers were made from black flames.

Following the sound of raised voices, anguished sobs, and the sound of frantic animals, Harry navigated his way through the maze of rooms to the kennel where Mandy and James would have been settling their overnight patients for the evening. He burst into the room two minutes later in time to witness the snarling visage of Molly Weasley using a blasting curse on the small toy poodle that had been barking non-stop before she turned her wand on Mandy. The senseless death of someone's treasured pet angered Harry but seeing the woman he'd once considered something of a mother figure threatening the woman that he'd grown to love over the last five years snapped something inside of Harry.

Letting out a scream of fury, Harry circled the room once in order to place himself between the three witches that had invaded the clinic; his eyes taking in James's unconscious form propped up against the back wall and the blood dripping down Mandy's white lab coat. As he slid to a stop and spun around in midair directly in front of Mandy, Harry transformed back into his human form for the first time in over five years. His father's invisibility cloak whipped around his body from the force of his momentum (hiding and revealing parts of his body in turns) and the ring on his finger glinted in the light as he brought the Elder Wand up to block the curses that had been fired at him and Mandy.

Harry was utterly silent in his fury as he lashed back at the trio of witches; hexing and cursing them without impunity. If not for his need to protect Mandy, James, and all of the pets in the room, Harry might have ended the fight much sooner. As it was, Harry had needed to make certain that Mandy and James were not injured further and that none of the other pets were harmed. Twenty-eight minutes later, Harry lowered his wand as the last of his opponents dropped to the ground unconscious; unmindful of the pain he was currently feeling or the blood that was steadily flowing from the numerous injuries he'd acquired during the course of the fight.

When the pain finally hit him, Harry groaned softly and sank down to his knees as he wrapped an arm around his chest; Mrs. Weasley having nailed him with a bludgeoning hex while he'd been deflecting the cutting curse Hermione had cast at Mandy. Leaning forward, Harry pressed his face to the cool linoleum that covered the floor and closed his eyes as he tried to bring his breathing back under control without aggravating his ribs any further. A hand tentatively reaching out to touch his shoulder had Harry twisting his head to the side and opening one eye to peer up at the individual that had disturbed him and came face to face with a frightened and worried Mandy.

"Harry…?"

"Hey, cutie pie, are you alright?" Harry asked in a raspy voice that cracked with disuse; five years of speaking using a parrot's vocal chords not doing his human voice box any favors.

"I'm fine," Mandy replied in a voice that wavered just a bit due to the stress she was feeling. "You, on the other hand, are a mess. We really need to stop meeting this way." Harry choked out a laugh before he let out another groan as his ribs protested against the movement. "Do you think you can help me get you up on a table so I can stop the bleeding? You're a little too heavy now for me to manhandle you onto the table by myself and James is still out cold."

"There is nothing you can do to the stop the bleeding until the dark magic is cleansed from my wounds and I don't think I can stand right now, let alone walk. Let me rest for a few minutes and then I'll drop the wards they put up around the clinic to keep us inside and everyone else out. Don't leave the room; there could have been others with them. Right now, you need to collect their wands and hide them somewhere so they can't attack you again if they wake up. Once you've done that, call the police (if the phones are still working) and let them know that the members of some weird cult broke in here and started attacking you and the animals."

Thirty-two minutes later, Harry was sitting up with the help of a paramedic while a second paramedic wrapped his bruised and broken ribs with gauze. After dropping the wards, he'd transfigured newspapers into knives to replace the hidden wands; making certain to smear them with both his and Mandy's blood since they'd both been hit with cutting curses. He'd also transfigured a gun, spent bullet casings, and used bullets in order to account for the death of the poor poodle that Molly had killed and some of the destruction about the room. To account for the absence of his parrot-self, Harry had summoned the feathers he'd molted over the past few weeks and transfigured a dog food dish into a passing parrot carcass that had been shot.

The last thing he'd done before the authorities arrived was to bind the three witches' magic, modify their memories to match the story he had created to explain what happened, and called Kreacher to help him get rid of the dark magic tainting his wounds so they could be treated and to hide the Hallows. Dobby had been sent to infiltrate the Ministry in order to find out why aurors had not been dispatched to the site upon the casting of the first dark spell in what was an all muggle town. The police arrived just seconds after Kreacher had finished helping dispel the dark magic with the paramedics, the local fire brigade, and a slew of reporters hot on their heels as the clinic soon became a flurry of activity.

Harry grunted in pain as the paramedic tapped his bandages to prevent them from unraveling. The two men then transferred him to a waiting gurney and strapped him down onto the wheeled bed. As they pushed him through the clinic, Harry let his eyes search for any sign of Mandy but didn't see her before he was loaded up into the waiting ambulance. Sighing in resignation, Harry closed his eyes and let the encroaching darkness finally claim him as the severe blood loss, mild magical exhaustion, and pain finally overwhelmed him.

* * *

Mandy shifted in the uncomfortable hospital chair and rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she glanced up at the clock before returning her eyes to the man sleeping on the bed she was sitting beside. It was decidedly odd to think of Harry as a man after having known him for five and a half years as nothing more than a bird. Sure, he'd told her that he was human but there was a small part of her mind that always though he'd been pulling her leg; even after he'd introduced her to the two elves.

She would never forget the sight of him tearing into the kennel with his feathers on fire while screaming out his fury as he circled the room before he transformed right in front of her in time to block the spells that had been cast at her. The way his body would flicker in and out of sight as he fought in complete silence against the three witches had made him seem like some sort of otherworldly angel of vengeance; his rage near tangible. She'd flinched each and every time she'd seen one of the spells connect with his body as he purposefully left himself wide open in order to protect her and James as well as the defenseless animals.

Her heart had risen up into the back of her throat and stopped beating when he'd dropped down onto his knees and keeled over at the end of the battle. She'd honestly feared he'd died protecting her for several agonizing minutes before her medical training kicked in and she'd scrambled to his side. She'd gone weak with relief the moment she was close enough to see the faint shifting of his back and sides with each breath he took. Mandy had felt both touched and troubled that his first concern had been her health instead of his own but she'd tried to be brave as she made light of how terrible he'd looked.

When he'd refused to allow her to help him she'd wanted to beat him over the head with a cast iron skillet for being an idiot; right up until he explained the bit about the dark magic affecting his injuries. That he'd been able to think clearly and come up with a plan to deal with their attackers given how much pain he'd had to be in at the time was nothing short of amazing.

It was also a glimpse of a side of her normally playful friend that she'd never seen during the five and a half years he'd lived with her. He'd always been an overly dramatic clown, an incorrigible flirt, the noble gentleman, a willing study partner, and a sympathetic friend with an endless well of patience whenever she grew depressed or frustrated. On the night of the attack, he'd been fury incarnate; an avenging angel, a reckless hero, the seasoned soldier, and an experienced commanding officer all rolled into one.

Shoving aside the memories from that unpleasant night, Mandy focused instead on the present; letting her eyes slip to Harry's face so she could study his features. At first glance, Harry could easily pass as James's twin; both of them had messy black hair, pale skin, were thin and wiry, and wore glasses. Once you took a closer look though it was easy to see the differences; Harry's face was slightly more rugged and angular, his eyes were a piercing emerald green, his lips were fuller, and he was several inches shorter. Finally seeing Harry's real face helped Mandy to understand why Harry had claimed he was looking in a mirror the first time he'd met James.

She was just thinking that he'd turned out to be far younger than she pictured after learning that he was a wizard (her mind previously supplying her with a picture of Gandalf from Lord of the Rings or a bearded Merlin) and rather handsome when a soft groan announced Harry's return to the land of the living. His voice filled the room five seconds later and Mandy couldn't help but chuckle over his choice of words.

"Urgh… bloody hell. Did anybody get the name and number of the stupid sod that ran me over this time?"

"I see you still have quite the way with words," Mandy laughed as she rose to her feet and moved closer to the bed as Harry opened his eyes and glanced in her direction.

"What can I say, cutie pie; it's been one hell of a day as once again I have a killer headache and it still hurts to breathe. I suppose I should at least be thankful that I didn't wake up behind bars waiting on Her Majesty's pleasure this time. Where am I anyway?"

"The hospital; your injuries were fairly serious and you spent several hours in surgery. You were unconscious for just over three days if you're curious; you lost a considerable amount of blood."

"Joy," Harry huffed with a grimace. "What about you? Are you alright? I know you were injured that night as well. Is James alright?"

"I'm fine; just one small cut on my arm that they stitched up for me that night. James is just fine too; he only had a couple of cracked ribs, a bruised back, and a mild concussion from being thrown into the wall."

"I'm glad both of you are alright; I only wish I had gotten there in time to prevent you from being hurt in the first place and save the pooch."

"I wish you would have been a little more concerned about your own life," Mandy tightly shot back as the smile slipped off her face. "You were ridiculously reckless that night! Leaving yourself wide open time and time again and taking hits you could have avoided or blocked."

"I did what I had to do to make certain they didn't hurt you again. I also wasn't about to let James or the animals suffer just to protect myself," Harry softly stated as he reached out and snagged Mandy's hand. "I was familiar with everything they were throwing my way and a few cuts and bruises were a small price to pay to protect you and the others. I may have been a touch rusty after going five and a half years without any practice but I knew exactly what I was doing."

Mandy huffed and glanced away from him as she fought to get her emotions back under control. A gentle tug of her hand had her turning back to meet Harry's fathomless emerald eyes and soon found herself caught up in their gaze. She felt her heart flutter when he leaned up on one elbow as he brought her hand up to his mouth and brushed a soft kiss across her knuckles; his eyes never leaving hers.

"I'm sorry I made you worry, Mandy," Harry apologized softly; calling her by her first name for the first time in all the years they'd known each other and Mandy felt a thousand butterflies take up residence in her stomach. "I will not, however, apologize for protecting you from those witches; the only reason they were even there was because they were looking for me. I should have realized that someone would eventually find me and taken precautions in order to protect you from those who would seek to harm you in order to get to me. You have my word that it will not happen a second time."

Nothing more was said at that point as Harry lay back down with a small grimace before he closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep; his hand still holding hers. Using her foot, Mandy snagged the chair she'd been sitting in earlier and pulled it closer so she could sit back down without actually breaking the hold Harry had on her hand. As she sat there she couldn't help but stare at the hand that Harry had kissed as she tried to figure out just what was wrong with her; feeling more than a little confused by her reactions to Harry and everything that had happened since the trio of witches had attacked her and James in the kennel.

She'd had her fair share of crushes throughout her teenage years but by the time Harry had fallen into her life she'd given her full attention to her education in order to achieve her dream. Harry's presence in her life had been a godsend; he'd kept her focused when her mind wandered, distracted her when she needed a break, and brought color back into her life after her parents' deaths. He'd teased her, flirted with her, and complimented her often and never before had she taken it as anything other than friendly banter between friends. He'd been nothing more than a very charming and entertaining bird after all.

Now though… now her feathered friend was very much the man he'd always claimed he was. A man who still insisted on calling her cutie pie, a man who'd stepped in front of countless dangerous curses and spells because he wished to protect her, and a man who had spent the last five and a half years living with her and sleeping in her bed. Sure, he may have been a bird at the time but he wasn't a bird any longer. Suddenly, his teasing and flirting didn't seem quite so innocent and teasing and instead of frightening or angering Mandy it filled her with excitement and yearning.

With her free hand, Mandy reached up to brush her cheek as she thought back to all of the times Harry had given her a quick kiss. She also couldn't help but think of all the times he'd sat on her shoulder and run his beak through her hair when she'd been distraught and mourning her missing parents. A blush crept up the back of her neck and over her cheeks as she recalled all of the times she'd run her hands over his body when she'd groomed or pet him. Not liking the direction her thoughts were going, Mandy tried to bury the awkwardness of treating Harry like an ordinary bird, now that she knew for a fact that he truly was a man, in the back of her mind.

Of course, that led her right back to square one; trying to understand why she felt so drawn to a man she really didn't know. Yet at the same time she knew him almost as well as she knew herself; considering how much of their lives they had shared through the years. He'd seen her at her best and at her worst and he hadn't run screaming at the first opportunity that presented itself. Sighing over her confusing and circular thoughts, Mandy dropped her head down onto the bed and eventually drifted off to sleep.

She woke several hours later to the feeling of fingers gently running through her hair and she was once again reminded of the many times Harry had woken her up after she'd fallen asleep working on her class assignments by running his beak through her hair. Letting out a soft sigh, Mandy pushed herself up off the bed and groaned when she felt her back protest the change in position due to the awkwardness of sleeping propped up against the side of the bed. She took a moment to stretch her back out and let out a moan of appreciation as her spine realigned itself with a series of soft cracks.

"I never thought the day would come when you found an even more uncomfortable position to sleep in than half draped over your text books," Harry quipped with a soft laugh once she glanced up at him. "Though at least the bed is a little softer than your desk ever was."

"Prat," Mandy retorted with a fond grin over the familiar teasing taunt. "How are you feeling?"

"Still sore but I don't feel quite as drained as I did earlier."

"That's good. Has the doctor been in to see you?"

"Yes; he stopped by a couple of hours ago but didn't stick around for long. I think I offended him when I asked him if he would be letting me go today."

"You really dislike hospitals, don't you?"

"Not at all. Hospitals are great and doctors and nurses have very important jobs and I don't think they get the recognition they deserve; I just very much prefer admiring them from a distance of several hundred meters."

Mandy laughed in response to Harry's logic and felt her heart skip a beat when Harry flashed her a rakish grin in response. She then glanced up at the clock in the room and groaned when she realized she'd stayed far longer than she originally intended. Sighing, Mandy climbed to her feet and spent a moment stretching out stiff muscles under Harry's curious gaze.

"I need to head home; I'd promised Simon I'd be back hours ago to help him take close up for the night."

"Please take me with you, cutie pie," Harry begged as he reached out and snagged her hand once more.

"Oh you silly man, I can't take you with me; what would I do with you while I was working?" Mandy countered as she laughed softly in remembrance of the first time he'd begged her to take him home with her.

"I'm housebroken, I can cook and clean, and while I might talk in my sleep I swear I don't snore. I'll even be your watch dog and guard your house," Harry reminded her with the ghost of a grin. "Just, please don't leave me."

"I wish I could, Harry, but I can't; you haven't been released by the doctors yet…"

"Oh my wounded heart!" Harry dramatically cried as he closed his eyes and draped his arm over his face. "I have again been rejected by the light of my life and it cuts like a knife." Mandy smothered a flurry of giggles over Harry's antics and her eyes danced with laughter as he shifted his arm and cracked one eye to pout up at her as he groused, "It's no laughing matter, cutie pie. Don't you know there's nothing worse than being imprisoned in a hospital bed for an eternity? Surrounded by cruel doctors and evil nurses that enjoy poking and prodding each and every one of your hurts just to see how much pain they can cause you in the name of medicine?"

"You are such a drama queen, Mr. Potter," Mandy informed him around another laugh.

"Will I see you again, cutie pie?" Harry inquired as he grinned up at her with an unreadable look in his eyes.

"Yes, I'll stop by in the morning before I open the clinic for the day."

"I'll be sure to set my alarm so I don't miss seeing your beautiful smile first thing in the morning then," Harry flirted with another heart stopping grin as he tugged on her hand and pulled her down so he could reach up to brush a kiss across her cheek.

Long used to Harry the parrot kissing her on the cheek and giving him a kiss on the beak in return, Mandy automatically turned and kissed him on the lips to both of their shock. The two of them froze, their lips still touching as they stared into one another's eyes. When Mandy's brain finally rebooted itself, she blushed bright red over her own forwardness as she broke the kiss and pulled back. Her heart began beating wildly when Harry reached out and trailed the fingers of his free hand across her cheek before threading through her hair. He then gently pulled her back down and tenderly brushed his lips against hers a second time.

Thinking and breathing became unimportant as Mandy willingly joined in the kiss.

They were interrupted ten minutes later by the evening nurse arriving to give Harry his next dose of pain medication and antibiotics and remind Mandy that visiting hours were over. Just before she left the room, Mandy glanced back at Harry and felt the butterflies in her stomach multiply when his eyes met hers. She probably would have stood there all night if not for the nurse inserting herself into their line of site; effectively breaking their eye contact and the spell that had seemingly held her rooted to the floor.

As she walked through the empty hallways of the hospital towards the exit, Mandy couldn't help but agree with Harry's assessment; nurses were just plain evil. There was no other explanation for the woman's untimely arrival and interference during what had been Mandy's first real kiss. As she stepped out into the cool night air, Mandy made a mental note to tell Harry to curse the woman bald for her audacity.

* * *

**AN:** _No toy poodles were harmed during the writing of this fic... even if the yapping of the neighbor's dog inspired the scene with Molly cursing the one in the story. And Harry's opinions regarding nurses, doctors, and hospitals in no way reflects my personal opinions. Only one more chapter left. ~ Jenn_


	4. Hero in a Handfasting

**Disclaimer:** _All portions of the HP universe/worlds/characters are the property of JKR, the WB, and respective publishing companies. All portions of the Animal Ark universe/worlds/characters are the property of Ben M. Baglio, associated authors, and respective publishing companies. This story is nothing more than a simple FanFiction that I have written for my own enjoyment. I have made no money from this or any of the other stories I have posted on this or other sites._

**AN:** _Please note that this story is self-beta'd; so there may be occasional grammatical or spelling errors that crop up every now and then and for those I apologize in advance._

* * *

**Hero in a Handfasting  
**

Harry slumped back in bed and sighed as Mandy vanished through the door. The stupid nurse hadn't even given them time to talk about the kiss they'd just shared before the evil bint had kicked her out of the room. Bringing his left hand up to his mouth, Harry let his fingers trace over his lips where he still felt an echo of the kiss they had shared. It wasn't exactly the first kiss they had shared; he'd often kissed her on the cheek when he'd been trapped in his parrot form and she'd often kissed him back on the beak. The differences between those innocent and friendly pecks and the kiss he and Mandy had just shared was like comparing glass to a diamond; they were in completely different leagues.

The twenty-five year old wizard had long known he was falling in love with the perky little blonde that had saved his life. She'd captured both his heart and his attention from the moment he'd first laid eyes on her. The problem was that he had no idea how she felt about him or if she'd even consider allowing their strange friendship to deepen into something more. It made his heart ache to think she'd forever be standing just out of reach simply because she only saw him as a friend. He'd never push her for something more if it wasn't what she wanted though; he loved her too much to make her miserable by trying to cage her.

_Maybe it would have been better if I had stayed a parrot,_ Harry thought to himself as he continued to ignoring the sadistic nurse puttering about his bed checking on the stitches they'd inserted into the numerous cuts that had littered his body. _At least when I was in my animagus form it hurt less to think of my cutie pie falling in love with someone else._

Once Harry was alone again, he called for Kreacher and asked the house elf to bring him a couple of healing potions in order speed his internal healing up so he could talk the doctor into releasing him sooner. He couldn't risk healing his cuts and external bruising because it would send up far too many red flags; normal humans didn't heal in under twenty-four hours immediately upon regaining consciousness after all. Just taking care of his bruised and broken ribs made life a whole hell of a lot easier for Harry; being able to breathe without every breath sending pain through his chest was something Harry could greatly appreciate.

Harry slept for a couple of hours after that until Dobby popped into the room and warned him that the Ministry had finally learned about the attack and that they planned to send a team of obliviators to Welford in the morning to wipe the memories of the muggles involved. Harry's fury, which had gone back to sleep after he'd dealt with the three witches, woke up instantly at the implied threat to his cutie pie. Harry immediately called Kreacher and ordered him to watch over Mandy to make certain the wizards didn't harm her or mess with her mind while he ordered Dobby to contact the goblins to purchase enough ward stones to protect the entire city from the Ministry and the warders to install them.

The next thing Harry did was to send a patronus message to Kingsley Shacklebolt, the new Minister of Magic, and advise him to keep his employees out of Welford or there would be hell to pay. He also told him that if the trio of witches that had attacked him disappeared from their cells, Harry would see to it that the man was kicked out of office. Kingsley sent a reply back threatening to have Harry labeled as a rising dark lord for attacking two pureblood witches and exposing their world to the muggles.

Harry, in return, accused Kingsley of aiding and abetting a pair of lowly purebloods and a muggleborn that had attacked the noble head of an ancient house with ties to the British royalty and if Kingsley wanted to play dirty than Harry was more than game and see to it that the matter was brought to the attention of a higher authority; the Crown. When two aurors and an obliviator turned up at the crack of dawn in his hospital room, Harry was more than ready for them; having just signed his release forms and dressing in clothes that were befitting his station.

"Mr. Potter…" John Dawlish began only for Harry to cut him off.

"Lord Potter."

"I beg your pardon?"

"I am the Head of Houses Potter, Black, and Peverell. My name is _Lord_ Harry James Potter and as such you shall address me as _Lord_ Potter or I will destroy House Dawlish for the slur against my person," Harry imperiously stated as his magic flared in irritation.

"Very well, _Lord_ Potter, you are hereby under arrest for attacking two pureblood witches," Gawain Robards, Dawlish's partner, declared as he pulled his wand out of his pocket in preparation of binding Harry.

"If you draw your wand I will defend myself, Auror Robards," Harry curtly informed the man.

"Please don't make this any more difficult than it needs to be, Harry," Robards wearily ordered only to jump when Harry's voice cut through the room like a gunshot.

"You do not have leave to address me by my first name, Mr. Robards, nor do you have the authority to arrest me on false charges. If you so much as raise your wand against me I am well within my legal rights to kill you where you stand. I am _Lord_ Potter of House Peverell and you would do well to remember that! Any attack or attempted attack upon my person or any persons under my protection is a direct attack upon the Crown and will see the attacker branded as a traitor to the Crown; an offense punishable by death. Your very presence here in this room is already pushing it as the entire township of Welford is under my protection and if a single resident of this town has had a single spell cast upon them; heads will roll and it will not be mine!"

All three older wizards in the room paled as the full significance of Harry being the Head of House Peverell finally sank in. The three men vanished a second later in a trio of loud cracks as they fled in fear for both their lives and their magic. The moment they were gone, Harry let out a growl and dropped back onto the bed and dropped his head into his hands as a spike of pain cut through his head due to drawing upon so much magic when his core still hadn't recovered from his recent fight.

"Bunch of bloody sheep," Harry rasped in irritation over the fact that Kingsley had forced his hand.

"You're related to the Queen…?"

Harry lifted his head just enough to see a white faced Mandy standing in the door. Sighing in resignation, Harry wearily rubbed his face and shook his head before answering, "No; wrong Crown, cutie pie. The Potters are the direct descendants of the third son of House Peverell and the Peverells are the direct descendants of the second son of House Pendragon. In other words, I'm the only living heir to King Arthur's throne but because Camelot was destroyed I have no throne to claim though I do have his crown in my vault."

"You are the many times great-grandson of King Arthur? As in you are actually related to the King Arthur of legend?" Mandy inquired as she leaned heavily against the door and stared at him in disbelief.

"I had a hard time believing it when I first stumbled across the information as well," Harry offered with a pained smile before he glanced away. "What troubled orphan doesn't dream of finding out that their absent family was some long lost prince or princess and pray that some day they will be found and whisked off to their happily ever after?"

"Why didn't you say anything sooner? I mean, we talked about everything else through the years, why not your relationship to one of the most romanticized kings in British history; no, world history? I mean, your status as King Arthur's heir is obviously a big deal based upon the reactions of those wizards."

"If Shacklebolt hadn't of forced my hand, I never would have said anything," Harry quietly confessed. "The Potter's heritage has been one of the best kept secrets for well over thirteen hundred years. Revealing my status as heir to the Crown of Pendragon was the only way to force the Ministry to back down without being forced through an endless sea of red tape and legal maneuvers that would have lasted for years though. It doesn't really change who I am; at least I hope it doesn't."

"It's weird; I was certain that you would be able to claim yourself as a descendant of Merlin… not King Arthur," Mandy mused as she pushed away from the door and fully entered the room.

"Ah, actually I'm only distantly related to Merlin through my paternal grandmother's family," Harry countered in all seriousness as he suppressed a mischievous grin. "The Black Family married into the family that married into another family that married into Merlin's at some point. That makes me something like a fifth cousin a hundred times removed or something like that even with my godfather, who himself was a Black from the main branch of the family, adopting me just before he died. The Blacks were related to more than half of the wizarding world though; so claiming to be a descendant of Merlin is nothing special."

He was rewarded with a soft laugh and grin for his crack about being related to Merlin as being nothing special in a society filled with hundreds of men and women that could use magic and had a matching claim. He let an answering grin slide across his face as he gingerly pushed himself to his feet and patted down his pockets to make certain he had all of his things.

"What are you doing out of bed, anyway?"

"The warden released me earlier this morning since there's nothing really wrong me that a week or so of rest won't cure. I just have to come back to have the stitches removed at the end of the week. So, what do you say? Shall we ditch this depressing prison and go find us a little out of the way café where we can grab a bite to eat?"

"Actually, Mr. Potter, I'm going to need you to come with me down to the station so I can take your statement in regards to the attack at the clinic four days ago," an older man with a salt and pepper mustache wearing a policeman's uniform stated as he stepped into the room.

"Is there any way I can convince you to let me treat my cutie pie to breakfast and a cup of coffee before meeting you down at the station in two hours, officer?" Harry requested politely with just a hint of desperation coating his voice. "I am under a doctor's orders to not skip any meals due to my recent blood loss."

It took the promise of a box of assorted breakfast danishes and four cups of black coffee (paid for by the officer) to convince the man to allow him to take Mandy out to breakfast and that was only after the man confirmed that Mandy had been going to accept Harry's invitation. Harry enjoyed the hour and a half long first date; marveling over the novelty of spending time with Mandy as himself instead of as a parrot. He was also surprised and more than a little pleased to find that there was none of the expected awkwardness that might have reared its ugly head because of their shared past while he was trapped in his animagus form.

After their meal, Harry escorted Mandy to the clinic before he headed down to the police station to deliver the requested danishes and coffee and give his statement to the officer in charge of the investigation. The rest of his morning was spent relaying how Harry had met Mandy (giving the cover story that she'd rescued his escaped parrot five years earlier), how he'd come to be in the clinic that night (he'd arrived to spend time with Mandy and check up on the parrot he'd allowed Mandy to keep), and how he'd known the assailants (he'd been attacked by them and other members of their cult before). They finally let him go around lunch time with a request to let them know how long he was staying in town and how they could get in contact with him if they had more questions.

He took the time to pick up several orders of fish and chips before he made his way back to Animal Ark. When he reached the clinic, Harry hesitated just outside of the door as he felt the first flash of awkwardness since regaining his human form. He had no idea how James and Simon would react to his presence now that he was no longer a bird; both men were highly protective of Mandy. After a full minute of dithering, Harry gathered his Gryffindor courage, squared his shoulders, and pushed his way into the clinic.

* * *

_Fives years later..._

Harry let himself get trapped in Mandy's sapphire eyes as she slipped her hand into his upon joining him in the center of the rune circle that had been drawn in the backyard of Mandy's Welford cottage. He barely heard the blessings that the druid priestess was intoning as the ancient old crone bound their wrists with circle of woven gold and red acromantula silk. Memories of the past three years washed over him as he drowned in the endless depths of Mandy's blue eyes.

After dealing with the fall out of the attack by Mrs. Weasley, Miss Weasley, and Miss Granger in the muggle world, Harry had been forced to deal with the corruption of the wizarding world. The Ministry had fallen quickly upon the public release of Harry's status as the Head of House Peverell and as the only living heir of Arthur Pendragon. The goblins had backed him up every step of the way and there had been more than a little bloodshed involved as Harry gave no quarter to any one that was guilty of spreading the pureblood superiority propaganda or suppressing those who were not of pureblood or human descent.

In place of the Ministry, Harry had established a ruling council that was reminiscent of the Knights of the Round Table; all twelve members of the council being appointed by Harry and approved by his advisors for a term of ten years. The political and ancestral backgrounds of the entire council were well balanced; there were four members each from known 'light', 'dark', and 'gray' families, four each from pureblood, halfblood, and muggleborn lines, and evenly split gender wise with six wizards and six witches. The advisory committee that was charged with keeping the council in line was, on the other hand, made up of an assortment of sentient beings and partial humans such as goblins, centaurs, mermaids, vampires, and werewolves; just to name a few.

Harry had then given the council five years to clean up the British Wizarding Society, revise the educational system, and prepare the wizarding public for integrating itself back into muggle society. He wasn't going to reveal the magical world to the general public but he believed that all witches and wizards should be able to blend in better so as to reduce the risk of their society being discovered. It would also give the magicals a better understanding of the world they shared and force them to stop treating the muggles as beneath their notice.

After he entrusted the council with cleaning up the messes of the previous generations, Harry returned to Welford in order to woo his blonde haired cutie pie. He started by hunting down a magically raised juvenile hyacinth macaw to fill his former place as Animal Ark's mascot. He'd considered getting another African gray but there was a part of him that feared if he did the bird would take his place in her life. So instead, he'd taken the cobalt blue macaw male with yellow eye rings, deep brown eyes, and a friendly disposition. Mandy had fallen in love with the parrot the moment Harry had presented him to her and promptly named him Brewster before talking Harry into helping her train him.

Next, he began inviting her out to dinner once a week; taking her to her favorite restaurant one week and then introducing her to a magical café and restaurant the next. He would also take her out to the movies, to the theater, or out dancing every other weekend when she didn't have to work. When he wasn't taking her out on dates he was spending time helping her run the clinic; feeding and watering the long term patients, cleaning out cages, and keeping track of the clinic's supplies. His efforts were rewarded when Mandy first agreed to be his girlfriend and then later accepted his marriage proposal.

On a more personal front, Harry had obtained an apprenticeship with an old animal healer in order to obtain his magical veterinary license so that he could do more to help out around the clinic. Everything he'd learned through the five and a half years he'd lived with Mandy as a bird gave him an advantage when it came to the magical treatment of animals as he already knew far more about bird, mammal, reptile, and fish anatomy than the healer that was training him. In addition to his healing license, Harry was required to pick up masteries in Care of Magical Creatures, Herbology, and Potions; which he easily obtained thanks to the three years he'd spent training in Grimmauld Place prior to breaking the link Dumbledore had forged between him and Voldemort.

It had taken him two years to finish his education and obtain his animal healer's license. Mandy had been stunned when he'd finally told her what he'd been up to in his spare time; especially when she learned that Simon and James had both been helping him on the sly. That had been the same night that Harry had proposed to his long time girlfriend (they'd officially been together for a year and a half at that point and had known each other for seven years). She'd accepted his proposal without any hesitation and then promptly invited Harry to move back into the cottage (the wizard having moved out about the same time he'd regained his human form so as not to set tongues to wagging about the small town).

They'd then spent the next twelve months setting up the magical side of the clinic; which included installing a potions lab, a greenhouse, and a second kennel where magical patients could be housed separately. Clients had begun coming forward within hours of Harry announcing the opening of a magical animal clinic in Welford and business immediately doubled for Animal Ark. Within two months, Harry had needed to hire a magical intern, a second secretary, and a journeyman potioneer to brew the healing potions he needed to treat his patients. Their schedules were hectic but both Mandy and Harry loved their jobs and the fact that they could share the work load during emergencies; much as Mandy's parents had when they were alive.

Once they'd grown accustomed to the madness that was their lives, the happy couple had set the date for their wedding. Because of their mixed heritage, they'd made arrangements to be married at the local church in the morning so that the town could bear witness to their nuptials and at the same time made plans to be handfasted later in the afternoon that same day in the magical tradition followed by a single reception. Both events would be attended by James, Simon, and a small handful of magicals that Harry still kept in touch with; namely Luna Lovegood, Neville Longbottom, the Patil twins, and the Weasley twins (both of whom had been appalled by their mother's and sister's vicious attack on Harry after everything the last Potter had done for the Weasley family).

The wedding had been both beautiful and large as Harry had spared no expense to give his bride to be the wedding of her dreams. Mandy had looked beyond gorgeous in her white gown; a real life princess. Harry had needed to pinch himself several times throughout the ceremony just to make certain he wasn't dreaming. After the wedding, the pair of them had rushed home to get changed into their ceremonial robes for the handfasting and check to make certain that the elves were having no problems preparing the feast and the cake for the reception.

Harry's attention was brought back to the present at that point as the priestess lifted Harry and Mandy's bound hands and presented the couple to their guests as Lord and Lady Potter. As they bowed to their friends (who were in truth more like their family) Harry glanced sideways at his wife and felt a wave of wonder and warmth wash through him. When she turned to catch his eye and flashed him a radiant smile, Harry felt his heart skip a beat and he unhesitatingly returned her smile with one of his own.

The reception passed by in one big blur for Harry, the only thing that stood out in his mind was the vision of beauty that was his wife. He knew they'd eaten a magnificent feast, shared a delectable cake, mingled with their guests, had their pictures taken, and danced the night away in each other's arms but he couldn't provide the details of anything outside of how beautiful Mandy looked in both her dress and her robes. He wasn't too bothered though; because in his mind everything had been perfect.

As the clock struck midnight and the two of them began taking their leave so that they could change their clothes a second time, grab their suitcases, and catch a lift to the airport, Harry couldn't resist leaning closer to ask, "Please take me with you, cutie pie?"

"Oh you silly wizard, I couldn't possibly leave you behind; whatever would I do without you by my side?"

Harry laughed as he swept her up into his arms and stole a couple of kisses as he carried her across the threshold for the second time that day. Thirty minutes later, the two of them were on their way to the airport where they'd be catching a flight to the Caribbean; they'd be spending their honeymoon on a two week long cruise that would take them around to the various islands.

* * *

*** * * THE END * * ***

* * *

**AN:** _And that's a wrap. I know the end seems rather rushed and there wasn't as much detail throughout the story as there usually is in my stories but this story was written purely for the enjoyment of my youngest. I also spent less than a full week over the course of a month to actually write the story once I came up with the idea. _

_I'd originally intended on getting this posted sooner as well but I had other issues to deal with during the second half of last week and have been making a ton of phone calls trying to get a few things taken care of. I'll post the next chapter on Haunted either tomorrow or Saturday as I'm not finished spot editing for spelling mistakes and will need to upload it and fix the formatting before I can post.  
_

_Anywho... I hope everyone who reads this story enjoys it as much as I enjoyed writing it and that makes a few of you laugh as loud as it made my daughter laugh each time she'd read through it. I'd also like to thank everyone for all of the wonderful reviews and compliments! If I didn't answer your review, it was nothing personal; I just have a hard time keeping track of which reviews I've replied to because doesn't leave me any indicators as to which ones I've replied to and I dislike digging through my sent PMs just to try and figure it out because there's so many. Anyway, thank you again everyone! ~ Jenn_


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